


Sunflower

by planetaryparker



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 16:41:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,372
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23880238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/planetaryparker/pseuds/planetaryparker
Summary: In the days before Percy Jackson had ever come to Camp Half-Blood, before the world of the demigods had changed forever, life wasn't as complicated. There was campfire songs, there was capture the flag, there was gods and goddesses on Olympus with nothing better to do than to mess with the mortals below... There was simplicity—this is a short story that came of that simplicity.
Relationships: Original Character(s)/Original Character(s)
Kudos: 3





	Sunflower

The day I came to camp, it was raining, which I honestly thought was kind of a bummer. I mean, don't get me wrong, rain is great—It just wasn't really my thing.

That is, until I saw her dancing in it.

She was perfect—the way her smile glowed, the way her hair shined, the way her delicate fingers messed with her necklace. She was art. She was pure art. Like a thousand angels singing a glorious song. She was the song.

I'd never believed in love at first sight, but fate had something different planned.

Over the next few weeks, I got to know her. Her name was Aster. The way she said her name—Aster—was just beautiful. More beautiful than any music I'd ever heard before.

As days went by, I found myself thinking of a line from West Side Story—"Say it loud and it's music playing, say it soft and it's almost like praying..."—it perfectly fit her name.

But I was even more enthralled with the way she said my name.

"Kyan," she would say. Kyan. I wasn't sure how many times I'd heard my own name spoken, but it was for some reason a completely different experience when she uttered the sound from her lips. It made my heart shine like a thousand suns.

The day I was claimed, she said she wasn't even surprised. "Show tunes? Poetry? You're more Apollo than even Apollo is," she joked.

She was right.

She'd been at the camp for longer than I had, yet she still hadn't been claimed. It made me angry. What kind of parent just leaves their kid abandoned like that? I confided this to her, but she said not to worry about it—that she'd be claimed soon enough.

-

Once, a few nights after moving in to the Apollo cabin, I had a dream.

A strange laugh filled my ears. Strange, but melodic, and…familiar.

"It's me. Apollo," he said with a flashy grin. The white of his teeth was enough to blind a person. I flinched.

"Dad?" I asked.

"Yep. Sorry I never stopped by. I've been busy, ah…y'know, lugging the sun across the sky," he explained.

I almost laughed. In fourteen years, never once had I met my father. In fourteen years, he couldn't find a single moment to come say hi to me. And yet somehow, Apollo cabin was nearly overflowing with kids. I didn't laugh, though; I remembered Aster. How she wasn't claimed. At least he was trying to make an effort.

It was like he was reading my thoughts.

"The girl, huh? You really do like her?" He asked. I knew it wasn't a question, though. I nodded.

"Since the moment I saw her," I replied quietly.

Apollo laughed again. "Aphrodite really did a number on you," He replied. "Well, anyway, I just stopped by to meet you." He laughed. "I have a lot of kids to keep track of, you know…Anyway, see you around, Kyle." And he disappeared.

And I woke up.

-

"He didn't even call you the right name?" Aster's voice floated in the air.

"No, he called me Kyle," I replied a bit dejectedly. She snickered.

"Kyle. That's amazing. I have to start using that one," she giggled. I lightly shoved her shoulder. She stopped. "But for real, I'm sorry, Ky. The gods suck."

I nodded.

The gods really did suck.

-

The summer flew by. It was packed full of camp games, s'mores, singing, and fun. I bonded with my cabinmates in the sense that all of us were rather embarrassed and ashamed of Apollo. Plus, we were all music nerds, to some extent—a boy named Theo loved jazz, a girl named Harley loved indie music, and my new best friend Parker loved show tunes just as much as I did. There were more of my siblings, too—about twenty, all packed into Apollo cabin.

"That's not even all of us, probably," Theo, the counsellor, told me one day. "Apollo, ah…he gets around a lot." I nodded, not surprised in the slightest.

I was glad that I had them. I would have felt much more alone without them—and I got to thinking about Aster whenever my train of thought went down this road. She didn't know who her siblings were. She'd been staying in Hermes cabin for a long time.

On my last day at camp for that summer, I asked her how long she'd been at Camp Half-Blood. I'd avoided the subject until now. It seemed touchy. She sighed.

"Four years," she replied.

I gasped.

"Four years and you still haven't been claimed yet?" I exclaimed.

"No." She drew a flower in the dirt with her finger. She didn't look at me.

"I'm sorry, Aster, I really am." I frowned and touched her lightly on the shoulder. "I'm sorry."

She twisted and looked at me. A few small tears traced their way down her cheeks. She wrapped her small arms around my waist, burying her face in my chest. "It's awful, Kyan. It's terrible. Every day I wake up and I don't know where I belong. I feel abandoned. I don't feel loved."

I wrapped my arms around her and stroked her hair. I placed my chin on her head. I could feel my own eyes tear up on her behalf.

"I lived in a foster home my whole life. They were good to me, but when I got older, they started realizing there was something wrong with me. I guess I would cause a lot of trouble for them, and they said that in the winter I wouldn't stop crying. They decided I was too much trouble, and I got sent somewhere else." She said all this through a small, whispery voice. It wavered ever so slightly. "Then I started to see monsters. Every family I got sent to said I was crazy. Seeing monsters, crying all the time…and finally, an undercover satyr found me in a CPS. Apparently they'd heard things about me and wanted to take me in, so they brought me here. I've been here ever since."

I hugged her tighter. It all came tumbling out. I wondered if this was the first time she'd said any of this. It wasn't like she had that many friends. She shut herself off to a lot of people.

"But after being here for so long…what if I am crazy, Ky? What if I wasn't seeing real monsters? What if it's all in my head?" She sobbed and shook. It was violent in the most passive way.

I hadn't explored a lot of my gifts as a child of Apollo, but I knew we were supposed to take pain away. So I tried to do that. Slowly, I took on some of her mental anguish.

It was horrible. I felt her doubt, her anxiety, her abandonment; all her fear, all her worry, everything she was feeling—I took some away. A few tears fell down my own face. She stopped shaking.

"Is that—is that you?" She asked, lifting her head and looking up at me. Her beautiful eyes were puffy and red. I nodded. She hugged me again. "I don't…I don't want you to feel the way I do all the time. It's terrible."

I shook my head, rubbing her arms to try to comfort her more. "I don't care. It's helping."

She nodded slowly.

Then, in a nearly inaudible voice, she said, "Thank you."

-

The next day, I left camp. It was the seventh of August, and school was starting the next week for me. I went home to Kansas. I kept what I'd learned about myths and gods to myself, and I adapted back into my old lifestyle: skateboards, car rides, and blasting broadway with my best friends.

But I didn't forget.

I promised Aster I'd write letters, since neither of us had a cell phone. And I did.

"I know that I'm a half a country away, but just know that I'm here for you. I am. I'll drive all the way to New York if I have to. Whenever you need me, I'll be right there.

Your best friend,  
Sunflower."


End file.
